English China - A Bone China History

Soft paste porcelain is the key to the china history of England as it is the direct predecessor of the loveliness that is fine bone china.

You have to picture in your mind's eye, a bunch of Europeans in the 1700's desperately trying to emulate the hard, thin, transluscent, stunningly beautiful Chinese porcelain.

The Germans got there first, but that didn't stop everyone else having a go.

The French did their thing and did rather well. The English were very keen too. Then there was the utter quality of Copenhagen and the scintillating design quality of the other Scandinavians. The Dutch had given us Delft a long time before and the Spanish of course had the superb legacy of Buen Retiro, Capo Di Monte, Madrid.

English soft-paste is made with china clay, but instead of china stone
(feldspar) it uses other glassy substances to get the effect. It is
fired at a lower temperature than hard porcelain, so is still porous
unless glazed. Hard porcelain resists water.

Spode of Staffordshire eventually put the right combination of both bone
ash and china stone to the mix and, hey presto - bone china! Wow! What
a material.

Because it's almost 50% bone ash, which therefore
replaces some of the china clay and china stone that European porcelain
has, it is (rather snootily, I think) referred to as a 'soft-paste'. This is
despite it being fired at the same high vitrifying temperature as hard-paste porcelain.

It's less easily damaged
than Euorpean porcelain and is fired at the same vitreous temperature, so why "soft-paste"?

So, for me, English china is the ultimate porcelain - bone china is a
purer white than European porcelain and harder. In general a better
substance.

Soft-paste English china was developed by Thomas Briand (Chelsea) and presented
to the Royal Society in 1742 and is believed to have been based on a
formula developed by Saint-Cloud in France.

In 1749, Thomas
Frye, a painter, took out a patent on a porcelain containing bone ash.

This was the first recorded use of bone in bone china history,
but the recipe still needed a lot of work as it wasn't the perfect mix.

The recipe was subsequently perfected by Josiah Spode (Jnr), unquestionably the most pre-eminent figure in bone china history. Spode, sadly went into administration in 2008. The old factory is now a ruin.

Some business entreprenuer, I am sure must have bought the brand and may be continuing, but it's not the same, is it?

Such is the current fate of English china. I am doing my best to raise the phoenix from the ashes with my ongoing company making English bone china figurines. But there are no longer many of us left flying the flag.

Some quick side notes to add by one of my researchers, JB (you may see various of his posts around the site)

It is generally stated that the only British hard-paste (
true ) porcelain is that made by Plymouth and it`s successor factories -
Bristol and then New Hall. This is true up to a point but it should be
remembered that Coalport used a quite thickly potted, hybrid hard-paste
porcelain from it`s establishment in the 1790s until around 1814 when
the factory started to use a noticeably softer, `warmer` body and glaze
and sometimes more thinly potted body. From c.1820 items made from this
body frequently bear one of the Society of Arts Gold Medal `Feldspar`
marks.

Another oft repeated
comment is that Josiah Spode `invented` bone china. Not so. Spode
developed and refined bone china into what became the standard British
body but bone china was first used at Bow in 1748 - some 41 years before
Josiah Spode started tinkering.

The
great copyist Edme Samson started producing his wares in the late 1830s
but what is often forgotten or not realised is that the factory
continued production until 1969. That fine Chelsea figure you thought
you had ....... ? Could be that not only is it not Chelsea but it`s not
even antique ! While the Beatles were singing about Sergeant Pepper and
his lonely hearts club the Samson factory was still making forgeries
...... er, `tributes` ........

So beware on eBay!

On a happier note, it means that right now there are some terrific English china bargains to be had on eBay.

As the fashions and tastes swing back to a vintage look and to what some people call 'Shabby Chic', the English china look is becoming more and more in vogue.

This will inevitably lead back to an upsurge in prices for English china, so best bag your bargains now, before it turns.

Recipes were closely guarded, as illustrated by the story of Robert Brown, a founding partner in the Lowestoft factory, who is said to have hidden in a barrel in Bow to observe the mixing of their porcelain secrets.

A partner in Longton Hall referred to "the Art, Secret or Mystery" of porcelain.

In
the fifteen years after Briand's demonstration, half a dozen factories
were founded in England to made soft-paste table-wares and figures:

• Chelsea 1743 (Thomas Briand and Charles Gouyn)

• Bow 1744

• St James's 1748 (Charles Gouyn)

• Bristol 1748

• Longton Hall 1750

• Derby 1757 (Sprimont and Duesbury)

• Lowestoft 1757 (Robert Brown)

All the above were experimentiong with soft-paste. In the mix too were Caughley (Salopian), Coalport, Davenport, Liverpool, and Worcester - all pioneers of early English china porcelain.

Bow

In 1744, the Bow factory was originated when a
porcelain patent using clay from America was taken out by Heylyn and
Frye. By 1747, together with two London merchants, they had founded the Bow factory.

Manufacturing
Oriental style porcelain for the new middle-class market, by the
mid-1800's, Bow was England's largest porcelain factory. Bow's
subsequent decline was precipitated by the deaths of three partners and a reluctance for the successors to adapt to new fashions. The factory was sold in 1774.

Chelsea

Around 1744 two partners, Sprimont & Gouyn
teamed up with a Meissen chemist and began making a porcelain with frit
(powdered glass) ingredients in Chelsea, London. In 1749, the factory
expanded in size and productivity, looking to follow the aristocratic
market of Meissen and the Japanese and Vincennes designs.

In 1769, Sprimont sold the business and various owners operated it until 1784.

Derby

By 1750, the Derby China Works had been established
by china-maker Andrew Planché (1728-1805), a Huguenot and apprentice
goldsmith. In 1756, William Duesbury (1725-86), an enamel-painter, and
John Heath, Planché's financier, formed a partnership and the factory
expanded.

In 1770, William Duesbury & Co.
purchased the Chelsea Porcelain factory, operating Derby and Chelsea
jointly until 1784 when they closed Chelsea. This acquisition brought
into the fold the knowledge and skills of the Chelsea works.

In
1774, a showroom was opened in Covent Garden, London. In 1776, they
purchased the Bow factory. William junior (1763-96) succeeded his father
in 1786 and enlarged the factory. Subsequent owners could not keep up
with the times and the factory folded in 1848.

St James

Around 1749, following a bad start at
Chelsea, Charles Gouyn left his partnership with Nicholas Sprimont. He
went on to sell porcelain wares at St. James's, near Hyde Park Corner.

The
body of his wares contained a glassy frit similar to the techniques and
recipes of French soft-paste porcelain. The difference was it had a
high lead content from the flint glass. The wares sadly often collapsed
during firing.

Formerly known as the "Girl-in-a-swing" factory the works produced scent bottles, figures and "toys".

Worcester / Bristol

The Worcester Porcelain English china factory was started in
1751. A group of investors, including Dr. John Wall whose genius it
was that has made Royal Worcester the oldest surviving and and most
renowned in the history of bone china.

In
1752, the factory aquired the Bristol China factory and began to make a
soft-paste porcelain based upon soap stone. Worcester specialized in
china tea tableware, which had to withstand boiling water without
cracking (the soapstone was the secret to this technology).

Worcester
also decorated with transfer-printed designs. Following the death of
Dr. Wall, and an economic recession, the works was so well set up by its
founder that it weathered every storm to survive until this latest economic crisis, which put pay to the old Worcester works for good.

Other English soft-paste porcelain factories

Even more early English china soft-paste porcelain factories
include Limehouse and Vauxhall, and West Pans, Badderley-Littler,
and Pinxton.

Some English factories were making
hard-paste porcelain such as Plymouth, Bristol and New Hall.

Hard-paste porcelain has to be fired at a
higher temperature than soft paste (1400 Celsius against 1200 for soft
paste). Hard-paste porcelain can be fired to make porcelain bisque
(unglazed), a very hard porcelain. It is a bright, white porcelain which
is impermeable to water.

BOW CHINA WORKS : London,
c.1747-c.1776, porcelain, mainly soft-paste. Bow was very popular in
England in 18th century. One of the most successful uses of enamel
colours on Bow wares is seen on those pieces decorated in one of the
well-known Japanese Kakiemon styles. Perhaps because of their lack of
highly skilled painters they succeed in recapturing the seemingly free
manner of painting seen on the oriental wares, as opposed to the more
painstaking copies on some Continental and English porcelains.

CAUGHLEY (OR SALOPIAN) WORKS : near
to Broseley, 1775-99, porcelain. Thomas Turner, founder of the Caughley
works, had formerly been employed at the Worcester porcelain manufacture, which techniques he used in his own factory. Sold to John Rose & Co (Coalport).

CHAMBERLAIN(S)
(& CO) : Worcester, c. 1786-1852, porcelains, subsequently Kerr
& Binns. One of the main rivals for Worcester porcelain manufactory
where Robert Chamberlain was an apprentice. Business was obviously so good that they opened a London shop in 1813. This thriving situation continued until 1840, when they were merged with Flight, Barr & Barr, under the name of Chamberlain & Co. Eventualy Chamberlain works were taken over by Kerr & Binns.

CHELSEA
PORCELAIN WORKS : London, c. 1745-69, porcelain (soft-paste). One of
the most popular 18th century English porcelain manufacture. Chelsea’s
fine quality of work was praised with its sophisticated silverware
shapes (Nicholas Sprimont, a Belgian silversmith founded the
manufacture). Quality was the master card as Chelsea porcelain was
showing very little originality in style, owing a great deal to the
earlier exports from both China and Japan and the baroque fashions of
Meissen, changing to the new rococo style popularised by Sèvres. Sold to
William Duesbury, from Derby manufacture, in 1769.

William
Duesbury period (enamel painter in London) - from 1750 to about
1820From 1769 to 1775, William Duesbury was working the Chelsea factory
in London and then at Derby. This period is known as the Chelsea-Derby
period.

Bloor period- from c.1820 to 1848

The old works were closed in 1848.

Some
of the former artists and workmen opened a small factory in King
Street, Derby, and continued the tradition of Derby porcelain. The King
Street factory was taken over by the Royal Crown Derby Company Ltd in
1935.Derby Crown Porcelain Company Ltd – from 1876Royal Crown Derby
Porcelain Co Ltd – from 1890’s

DOULTON & CO
(LTD) (known as Royal Doulton) : Burslem, since 1882, earthenware and
china.Royal Doulton became a very strong group in 20th century. They
took over MINTON in 1968.

Founded
by Thomas Minton in 1793, the factory employed the leading British and
Continental artists and designers to build a pre-eminent reputation for
both design and techniques. Lots of techniques and innovations - Sèvres
pâte-sur-pâte, raised paste gold and acid gold process, are to be
associated with Minton. Throughout Minton’s history, important and
influential artists and designers, such as Christopher Dresser, were
attracted to the factory - " The world’s most beautiful china ", said
Queen Victoria.Minton & Boyle, 1836-41

Minton & Co, 1841-73

Minton & Hollins, 1845-68

Mintons, 1873-1950

Minton from 1950

Minton was sold to Royal Doulton group in 1968, but it is still working with its identity.

Spode
pottery manufacture flourished beyond all expectation in Stoke, helped
by the retail shop they had established in London to market their wares.
Prior to the end of the 18th century the factory was producing nearly
every type of ceramic ware common to Staffordshire at that time, with
the exception of porcelain. It is accepted that Josiah Spode II invented
bone ash porcelain around 1796. By comparison with some contemporary
wares, Spode’s services and decorative wares might well be considered
heavily decorated, with their bright enamel colours and burnishing
gilding. William Copeland, a former member of the staff, took over the
manufacture in 1833.

Wedgwood remains well
known for its universally recognised blue and white jasperwares. Since
1759 Wedgwood was producing every type of ceramics except porcelain that
was introduced in 1812. One of the most famous English manufactures.

WORCESTER
PORCELAIN : produced at the main factory at Worceseter from c.1751,
porcelains (and in 19th century earthenware, parian, English china
etc.)First or " Dr. Wall " period - 1751-83